U.S. Envoy Puts Peace-Plan Onus on I.R.A.

By WARREN HOGE

Published: April 12, 2003

LONDON, April 11—
President Bush's special envoy to Northern Ireland, Richard N. Haass, said tonight that it was up to the Irish Republican Army to make a ''historic transformation'' to rescue the province's stalemated peace plan.

Mr. Haass made his comments after flying to Belfast to hold crisis talks with Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, leaders of Sinn Fein, the political wing of the I.R.A., after the draft of a long-awaited pledge by the guerrilla group to abandon its war fell far short of expectations.

The unwillingness of the I.R.A. to make a clear declaration, disclosed to the British government on Wednesday, forced Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Irish counterpart, Bertie Ahern, to abandon a much heralded joint appearance in Belfast on Thursday, the fifth anniversary of the signing of the Northern Ireland peace agreement.

The two leaders were to present a negotiated final plan for restoring the province's power-sharing government that addressed Sinn Fein demands aimed at securing a swift indication that the I.R.A. would call a halt to its operations, including recruitment, training, intelligence gathering, arms procurement and punishment attacks, and carry out a visible act of destroying its weapons.

On seeing the language of the intended I.R.A. statement, however, both governments were taken aback at its lack of clarity and commitment. ''If there isn't clarity, there isn't confidence, and if there isn't confidence, there isn't a deal,'' Mr. Blair said.

Mr. Haass, who was in Belfast on Tuesday for President Bush's Iraq war summit meeting with Mr. Blair, returned to the province on Friday to offer direct American involvement in the emergency negotiations. Mr. Bush had committed his prestige to the Anglo-Irish effort, endorsing it and urging the province's political leaders to accept it and put an end to paramilitarism in the province.

Tonight, Mr. Haass said, ''I essentially urged Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness to use their influence to try and persuade the I.R.A. to say and do things that would mark an historic transformation in the situation.''

He said he had also told the Sinn Fein leaders that they had to start communicating with all the residents of Northern Ireland, not just their own hardened constituencies.

Mr. Haass's statement departed from the usual custom in the politics of Northern Ireland of avoiding assigning responsibility for breakdowns in peace negotiations to one side or the other.

Sinn Fein also found itself coming under direct criticism from Mark Durkan, the leader of the other Catholic party in the province, the Social, Democratic and Labor Party.

''I have listened to everything that Sinn Fein representatives have said, not just in recent days but over months and years,'' he said. ''Going by much of that, there is now no republican reason for the I.R.A. to exist.''

He also said he was impatient with I.R.A. intransigence, which he argued gave Protestant politicians the excuse they needed for not cooperating with their Catholic counterparts. The Northern Ireland Assembly, which operates on a formula dividing power between the Catholic minority and the Protestant majority, was suspended in October when Protestant leaders threatened to close it down because of disclosures of I.R.A. spy activities.

David Trimble, leader of the largest Protestant party, the Ulster Unionists, says he will not go back into a government with Sinn Fein until the I.R.A. makes it clear that it is getting rid of its arms and giving up its war against Britain.